


Facing The End

by HalfASlug



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-19 21:37:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10648545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfASlug/pseuds/HalfASlug
Summary: All along, it had been leading up to this.





	Facing The End

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as romantic or friendship. Whichever floats your boat. 
> 
> I’ve got a few fluffy ideas for fics in my head but then I started feeling sentimental about the end of Broadchurch and this happened. Plus this might be the last time I can post a fic without an AU tag because I’ve written something where they are both alive. Ha. It’s fine. Really. I’m fine.

Ellie Miller leant against the wall and stared at the door in front of her as though she could see through it. Around her she could see people moving, heard Hardy’s quiet voice somewhere in the background, but it did nothing to distract her.

Joe was just a few feet away from her. 

She wondered what the door was made of. Could he feel the rage and hatred burning in her chest? Could he sense her watching his only escape? Did he even know she was there?

She blinked when she saw Hardy slouch against the wall next to the door. Only then did she notice they were the only ones left in the corridor.

“Did he say why he wanted to speak to us?”

Hardy shook his head. “Only that he mentioned us by name. Both of us.”

It had been years since Ellie had given up hope of justice for Danny. Joe was gone and that had been good enough for her and Beth. The idea that he was free still kept her up at night though. Any time Tom was late home she worried he was in contact with his father. Any news of missing children made her wonder if Joe could have been involved.

But life carried on and she dealt with it the only way she found worked; she ignored it and hoped one day it would be okay.

“You know you don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to,” Hardy said softly.

Ellie glared at him. She had told Joe she would face him if he ever dared step foot in Broadchurch again. Him waltzing into her workplace gave her no choice but to see what was so important that he was ignoring her death threats.

It was too much to hope for that he would provide any answers to the questions that had been festering for three years now. If he was sorry. Why he plead not guilty. Why he did it in the first place. If there was anything she could have done to stop him.

It didn’t stop a small part, the only part of the old Ellie Miller that had been left intact, wishing for them anyway.

Standing up properly, she straightened her blazer out and fixed her hair as best she could. Tears of fury had been building since she had heard his name an hour earlier but she refused to let them fall. She had come this far and she refused to break at the last moment. 

Hardy stood as well, his height catching her by surprise. He spent so much time curled in on himself that even now she sometimes forgot just how tall he really was. “If you need to leave at any point-”

“I’m not going to kick the shit out of him again.”

He arched an eyebrow.

Ellie avoided his eye. “If you want to instead, I won’t stop you.”

If it had been any other day she might have managed to get a smile or a reply out of him. As it was, neither of them knew if she was being serious or not.

“Whatever happens happens, doesn’t it?” Ellie tried to sound more confident than she felt.

“He could be giving himself up.”

“He could be causing even more shit he won’t own up to.”

“Only one way to find out.”

They had come so far together, her and Hardy. A journey that had been longer and richer than she expected on that fateful day on the beach. Now she struggled to imagine her life any differently. It had taken years, but she had finally accepted it was better to live a difficult truth than a beautiful lie.

And all of it came down to this. The town-wide heartbreak. The broken marriages and new love discovered. A move to Devon and back again.  Arguments and reconciliations. Sleepless nights and exhausting days. Betrayal from the most unexpected sources. Friendship emerging from the ashes. Redefining happiness. Rebuilding a life.

It all came back to this man and his actions. 

It all ended here.  

“Hardy?” Ellie steeled herself when she heard the waver in her voice. She met his eyes and it grounded her. “Whatever happens, I just… Thank you.”

It was nowhere near what she wanted to say but somehow encapsulated it all at the same time.

He looked on the verge of speech but cleared his throat instead. She waited for him as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Miller, I-” he tried but gave up.

It was unclear who stepped forward first, but it didn’t matter. Her arms wrapped around his waist as his folded around her back.

He, too, had been through the wringer, and was still standing. It was a miracle they had both reached this point and Ellie doubted she could have done so with anyone else. In a weird and admittedly combative way, they had saved each other.

He was her boss. A pain in her arse. Her friend. For a long time, her only one in fact.

Somewhere along the way, he became something else as well. Ellie still had no idea what.

Hardy stood back, his cheeks tinged pink. It was a sight so at odds with the grumpy bastard she had endured the first time she met him that she nearly laughed. 

Then he moved to her side and she remembered.

It was time.

“Ready?”

Ellie nodded as she reached for the handle. She took a deep breath and opened the door. 


End file.
